Harry Potter and the Exchange Students
by MegKF
Summary: At the beginning of Harry Potter's fourth year at Hogwarts, he meets exchange students from Japan on the train. (I'm really bad at summaries.)
1. Chapter 1

_Disclaimer: Harry Potter belongs to JK Rowling and Sailor Moon belongs to Naoko Takeuchi. I'm just borrowing them and I highly recommend the originals!_

 **Harry Potter and the Exchange Students – Chapter 1**

Harry Potter looked up as the door to his train car opened. He shifted slightly, comforted by the familiar feel of his wand near his hand. He didn't mean to be suspicious but his experiences on the train to Hogwarts so far hadn't been good. Taunts from Draco Malfoy were, of course, expected, but had already occurred. The last time he'd had an unexpected visit on the train it had been dementors, not something he really wanted to repeat. So he was a little surprised when several older girls he didn't recognize poked their heads into the doorway.

"Hello," the girls with blue, BLUE, hair greeted them softly, an unfamiliar accent adding to the strangeness. "May we join you? Some rather rude boy took over our cabin while we were in the restroom."

"I still say we should have just kicked his albino butt out of it," a tall brunet interjected.

"We talked about this Lita!" a pretty blonde said, rolling her eyes. "We're here as foreign students representing our government. If we get into a fight before we even get to the school it'll reflect poorly on all of us."

"Besides, Meiou-Sensei would get mad at us if we messed things up so quickly," the other blonde, her hair in pigtails, piped up.

Harry blinked a few times as he processed their conversation.

"I'm not sure there is enough space," Hermione said, having had no trouble following their words. "Even if we could bond over desires to hit Draco Malfoy."

"Not a problem," the fifth girl, the one with long black hair, said with a casual wave of her wand. A strangely warm rush of magic passed by them as the carriage was expanded slightly to fit the newcomers.

"Show off!" the pig-tailed girl exclaimed.

"Just because you can't do it," the other girl retorted as they all entered the train car.

"I'm Lita," the tall girl said introducing herself. "There are my friends, Ami (blue hair), Mina (first blonde), Serena (blonde pigtails) and Rei (black hair)."

There was a quick chorus of voices as everyone introduced themselves. He was relieved when they showed no obvious signs of recognizing him, they didn't even take a second look, much less try to see if they could make out the scar under his bangs.

"Were you saying you're exchange students?" Hermione asked excitedly. "Hogwarts A History doesn't mention anything like that."

"Yes," Ami confirmed. "We're going to complete our final year of magic schooling here. Our teacher decided that this would be a good way to learn about other magical cultures and allow us experience acting as diplomats before we come of age."

"Really?" Hermione leaned forward with a spark of joy in her eyes. She did love to learn new things. "How does our schooling differ?"

Ami smiled, recognizing a kindred spirit, "In Japan, and most of Asia, we use an apprentice system. Magic is identified as soon as a child is enrolled in traditional 'muggle' school, they then receive extra classes outside that. If you're lucky you'll enter an apprenticeship with a master. This usually only happen in established magical families unless you're very powerful or talented."

"Extra classes?" Hermione stared. "You get to have BOTH magical and muggle classes?"

"Oh yes. Individual experiences differ of course. 'Purebloods', as you call them, often don't attend muggle school past junior high, what would be 3rd year here. Or they attend schools that offer both classes and will take almost solely magical courses. It's why magicals in Asia tend to be able to blend in with non-magicals easier than other countries."

Harry watched fascinated as Ron's eyes glazed over as soon as the words 'extra classes' came out of Hermione's mouth. He was sort of interested in what they were discussing, but felt he needed to save his friend. He was somewhat thankful when he noticed similar expressions in the faces of the other girls, the one with pigtails, Serena, was almost as bad as Ron.

He leaned forward towards her since she was sitting across from him, "Do you have magical sports? Quidditch is very popular here. I've also heard of something called Quodpot, I think?"

"I don't really play sports," Serena answered. "I like watching them though. Lita plays basketball."

Lita perked up, "We don't have magical team sports like that. We usually play non-magical sports like basketball. We have other athletic activities like archery and kendo. Rei is actually a champion archer. She's also found ways to use magic to augment her skills."

"Oh?" Ron blinked as his eyes came back into focus. "Quidditch is the best!"

Harry smiled as he let the conversations wash over him, sometimes pitching in a little to one or the other. The rest of the train ride went smoothly, the golden trio separating from the Japanese girls as they left the train. The girls were going with the first years, since they were going to be sorted after them.

 **End - Chapter 1**

 _REVIEWS INSPIRE ME!_

 _So… I've found myself starting several new stories, handwriting them first. I have all sorts of intentions to finish my other stories. I've started new chapters, but am nowhere near finishing a chapter for any of them. This is a story that's been in the back of my mind for years, I hope you all like it. I decided to go with the English versions of their names, it wasn't easy to decide._


	2. Chapter 2

_Disclaimer: Harry Potter belongs to JK Rowling and Sailor Moon belongs to Naoko Takeuchi. I'm just borrowing them and I highly recommend the originals!_

 **Harry Potter and the Exchange Students Chapter 2**

Everyone clapped as the last of the first years were sorted. Ron grumbled as he waited impatiently for the food to appear. Hermione jabbed him with her elbow, giving him a dirty look. "They're not done yet! They still need to sort Ami and her friends." She reminded him in a rushed whisper.

"I wonder where they are?" Harry asked softly. "I thought they were going to be entering with the first years?"

As if they'd heard his question the door to the great hall opened and a tall woman with long purple hair entered, followed by the five girls. Whispers broke out among the seated students as they headed to where the first years had been before. McGonagall loudly clapped her hands for silence.

"This year is special because this is the first time that we've had exchange students enroll here. They are led by their teacher in healing, Ms. Meioh, or Meioh-sensei."

"They have classes in healing?" Hermione whispered her question to her friends, feeling that that would be a good class to have at Hogwarts.

"They will be sorted into houses so they can have the proper Hogwarts experience."

With this announcement Meioh-sensei rose up the steps to stand on the other side of the sorting hat.

"Serena Tsukino," McGonagall called out.

Serena almost tripped heading up to be sorted. It only took a couple moments before shouting out, "HUFFLEPUFF!" The house burst into applause as they welcomed their newest member.

"Ami Mizuno."

Only a light blush on her cheeks showed that Ami wasn't as calm as she appeared. Harry was fairly sure that she'd be in Ravenclaw unless she opposed it for some reason. Once again it didn't take long for the hat to come to the same conclusion. Ami's blush darkened as she went to her new table.

"Rei Hino."

Rei walked up to be sorted with the grace and confidence imbued into her after all her time as a miko.

Ron let out a shocked growl as she was quickly sorted into Slytherin, "I can't believe I talked quidditch with a snake!" He received an elbow in his side from Hermione, as she and Harry applauded hesitantly for her.

"Lita Kino."

The girl practically leaped onto the stage as she took strong steps up to be sorted. Gryfindor burst into applause as they welcomed one of the foreign students into their own house. She smiled and waved at Harry and his friends as she found a seat nearby, across from the Weasley twins.

"Mina Aino."

Several boys stared as the pretty girl took her seat on the stool, to be the last sorted. She only sat a moment longer than her friends, before being sorted into Hufflpuff with Serena.

"That's good," Lita said softly.

Harry glanced at her, unsure of what she'd said, only that she'd said something.

Lita, feeling his eyes on her, leaned around Lee to explain, "It's good Serena and Mina are in the same house. Their familiars are mates, this was they can be together."

Harry nodded, he didn't really know anything about familiars but highly suspected he soon would from the gleam in Hermione's eyes.

This interest would fade as soon as the Headmaster revealed that there would soon be even more foreign students in the halls of Hogwarts as they would be hosting the Triwizard Tournament. The students all started to chatter in excitement. Although it was obvious that hardly anyone had even heard of this competition. Only those whose parents had known and chosen to tell their children, like with Draco Malfoy, really knew anything about this, although they also didn't seem to know that much.

Hermione noticed the surprised look on Lita's face and leaned over to ask, "Do you know about the Triwizard Tournament?"

Lita smiled concernedly as those around her quieted to hear her answer, "My friends and I are here because we knew an international competition would be happening, but we didn't know which one. A seer foresaw that we would need to be here to ensure the best ending of a prophecy about the wedding of the next Japanese Minister of Magic. We did research many competitions that had occurred before. Right now I'm happy that we're not allowed to compete because we're not really Hogwarts students. We honestly never thought this would be the one brought back so we didn't study it much."

"Why didn't you think this would be the one?" Hermione asked, curious.

"This is one of the three competitions that were discontinued because they were deemed too dangerous. The last Triwizard Tournament ended with the deaths of two of the competitors, one headmaster, as well as several people in the audience."

There were many gasps as the students heard this.

"I'm sure your ministry and the schools wouldn't have agreed to bring it back if they hadn't put in safety measures. They wouldn't be irresponsible enough to endanger the lives of school children, even if you do have to be 17 to compete," Lita continued.

Harry let his head hit the table with a dull thump. Hermione gently patted his back.

"I'll research this," Hermione promised. "I'm sure that nothing will happen this time. The Headmaster has advanced warning about this."

Lita looked on, concerned even more that she might have jinxed one of her new friends. "Meioh-Sensei holds dual masteries, healing and history. You should ask her if you want to know more. She probably knows things about this that aren't even mentioned in any European history book."

Hermione nodded, she and Harry both worried about the nasty habit of everything happening to Harry. Ron looked on a little confused, but put an arm around Harry's shoulders. The trio showed a united front as they neared the end of the first day of a new year at Hogwarts.

 **End Chapter 2**

 _Sorry it took me so long to write this. I wrote the first half of this chapter immediately, but I wanted this to be in line with the book/movie so it was bothering me I couldn't remember how sorting night/Triwizard announcement went clearly. I eventually just worked around it. ^_^;;;_

 _Super kudos to AmberWolf for guessing so well on where they would be sorted._

 _REVIEWS INSPIRE ME!_


End file.
